Welcome To The World
by We Are The Final Shadow
Summary: Marauders Era Fic! James Potter had always been looking to be at the top of the world, now he's gotta deal with something entirely new unlike anything he's ever faced before. Soul-bond! fic (JPxLExSBxRL). Rating for later chapters. OC Submissions Open.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything associated

A/N: Flames and other plot bashing will be ignored as always.

CHAPTER ONE: The First

Two hazel eyes snapped open, their optics circled the circumference of the room taking in its appearance. The room itself was large, it could almost be compared to the size of a living room and then a bit extra on top of that. The first section of the room had been set up with two plush ruby coloured armchairs both facing a fireplace adorned with several Gryffindor flags that had been collected over the years. A large circular red rug was on the floor of this room and shared the same colouring as the two armchairs. Further on in the room there was a large doorway that led into a giant bathroom complete with a tub the size of an Olympic swimming pool. Finally the scene draws out onto a large four-poster bed containing a boy of roughly fourteen years of age, with charcoal black hair and hazel eyes who was currently laid in bed staring at the ceiling with his hands behind his head. James wasn't an ordinary teenager for many reasons, a large one being that James Potter was a wizard currently in the summer break before his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Another large one was that James Potter, along with his two best-friends Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew were learning to become Animagi so that their other best-friend, Remus Lupin would have a more bearable time getting through those horrible transformations as far as his 'furry little problem' was concerned.

James rolled his body over to the left-hand side, pulling his glasses off the bedside table to the left of his four-poster bed and shoved them on his face. James had barely gained consciousness, but at the same time, he knew that he couldn't be wasting time today, he'd invited two of his best-friends Remus Lupin and Sirius Black over for the remainder of the summer holidays and the they would be arriving within the next hour or so. He'd invited Remus around this time because the next full moon wouldn't occur until the first week that they were back at Hogwarts so it would be safe for him to do so, and he'd not even fully finished asking Sirius when the young man had promptly told him that he'd be delighted to escape his ghastly parents for any extra time during the summer break. He'd also invited Peter, but unfortunately he was on vacation with his mother at the time so wasn't able to attend.

James hauled his body out of the four-poster bed, he collected a few items of clothing out of the inside of the drawers in the bedside cabinet and headed off into the bathroom adjacent to his bedroom to bathe. Once that was done, James dressed himself in a pair of blue denim jeans and a white shirt beneath a midnight coloured glossy leather jacket. The teen returned to his bedroom and grabbed his wand off his bed-side table and slipped it into his jeans pocket on the way out of his room. On the opposite side of the door frame was a particularly long hallway adorned with brilliant red carpet. The polished oak walls were covered in moving photographs of not only James, but his parents and his friends as well, they were practically his family now, after all.

He continued through the house until he reached a large stairwell at the northern end of the room and immediately began descending the steps down into the lower floors of his parents' estate home. It was sometimes strange for him that he lived in a mansion for the summer and then lived in a castle for the rest of the duration of the year, a reality that he sadly admitted most people could only dream about.

"Ah, look who finally woke up," Fleamont Potter said as he witness his only child step into the large dining room, "We thought you'd never get up."

James laughed some, dropping into a seat beside his father and giving him a cheeky grin, "I had to be awake today otherwise I wouldn't have."

Euphemia Potter released a small chuckle at her child's antics, then joined him and her husband at the table.

"James, we wanted to talk to you about something."

"What is it?"

"When do you think we should organize to take a trip to Diagon Alley so that we can all collect the school items you, Sirius and Remus will need for the coming year?"

"Have we already got our letters?" James asked mystified, he didn't remember getting them sent out quite yet.

"They arrived this morning, we didn't open them, but we recognized the handwriting almost immediately, Sirius and Remus' were delivered here as well."

"Guess, Dumbledore figured that they'd be coming to spend the tail end of the summer with us then," James said thoughtfully, "I was thinking that we should go mid-way through next week, that way Sirius, Remus and I have a decent amount of time to catch up beforehand."

"Good idea."

x-x-x-x-x

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, reading through a particularly obscure novel written entirely in an indiscernible language. The elderly mage had a distant smile on his face as he perused through all the various information contained within the book. A sound collided with his ear-drums and Dumbledore gave a small smile without even lifting his eyes from the book he was studying, "Enter," the Headmaster said calmly.

"Professor Dumbledore," the woman said, striding into the room, a kind smile adorning her matronly features. She was dressed in a set of official-looking yellow robes with a high-wasted belt fastened around her figure, the symbol of the sun gleaming as the buckle of the belt and the final part of the outfit were the leather bracers won on either of her lower arms that went up to just below the halfway point of her forearm.

"Minister Jenkins, what might I do for you this evening," Dumbledore said with a bright smile upon his features, the man's sapphire eyes twinkling beneath his half-moon spectacles, "it is unlike you to visit at such a late hour."

"I wouldn't ordinarily, Albus, but the matter is of great importance."

Dumbledore nodded, "Of course, take a seat Minister, can I interest you in a lemon drop?"

Eugenia Jenkins lowered herself into one of the chairs opposite Dumbledore's desk, but politely declined the offer for sweets, she had a mission to carry out and that was the only reason she'd come here, "It is about three of your students."

"Three of my students?" Dumbledore asked, tilting his head to the side a slight amount, "Have any of them gotten in trouble with the Ministry?"

"No, that's not it at all. One of my men from the department of mysteries brought me some very interesting information this morning and I thought that I would share it with you so that if anything comes of it then you will not be unnecessarily surprised but you can be now while there are no other students around to start spreading rumours in case nothing does come to pass."

The minister reached for the wand stowed away inside one of the bracers on her arm and pulled it free before flicking it at Dumbledore's desk. A moment later a piece of parchment slowly came into view with a set of writing along it.

 _Soul-Bond_

 _State: Dormant, Potential_

 _Potential Bonded: James Ignotus Potter, Sirius Orion Black,_ Lily _J. Evans._

"Well, this is quite shocking indeed," Professor Dumbledore said, his eyes still twinkling like mad, "at least it is only potential for now."

Eugenia Jenkins had to restrain herself from laughing, "Albus, you know as well as I do that as far as potential is concerned, where this world sees it is not a case of if it's more of a case of when."

"We shall see how things go, moving forward," Dumbledore agreed.


	2. The First

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything associated

A/N: Flames and other plot bashing will be ignored as always.

CHAPTER ONE: The First

Two hazel eyes snapped open, their optics circled the circumference of the room taking in its appearance. The room itself was large, it could almost be compared to the size of a living room and then a bit extra on top of that. The first section of the room had been set up with two plush ruby coloured armchairs both facing a fireplace adorned with several Gryffindor flags that had been collected over the years. A large circular red rug was on the floor of this room and shared the same colouring as the two armchairs. Further on in the room there was a large doorway that led into a giant bathroom complete with a tub the size of an Olympic swimming pool. Finally the scene draws out onto a large four-poster bed containing a boy of roughly fourteen years of age, with charcoal black hair and hazel eyes who was currently laid in bed staring at the ceiling with his hands behind his head. James wasn't an ordinary teenager for many reasons, a large one being that James Potter was a wizard currently in the summer break before his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Another large one was that James Potter was learning to become an Animagus so that his friend, Remus Lupin would have a more bearable time getting through those horrible transformations as far as his 'furry little problem' was concerned.

James rolled his body over to the left-hand side, pulling his glasses off the bedside table to the left of his four-poster bed and shoved them on his face. James had barely gained consciousness, but at the same time, he knew that he couldn't be wasting time today, he'd invited his two best-friends Remus Lupin and Sirius Black over for the remainder of the summer holidays and the they would be arriving within the next hour or so. He'd invited Remus around this time because the next full moon wouldn't occur until the first week that they were back at Hogwarts so it would be safe for him to do so, and he'd not even fully finished asking Sirius when the young man had promptly told him that he'd be delighted to escape his ghastly parents for any extra time during the summer break.

James hauled his body out of the four-poster bed, he collected a few items of clothing out of the inside of the drawers in the bedside cabinet and headed off into the bathroom adjacent to his bedroom to bathe. Once that was done, James dressed himself in a pair of blue denim jeans and a white shirt beneath a midnight coloured glossy leather jacket. The teen returned to his bedroom and grabbed his wand off his bed-side table and slipped it into his jeans pocket on the way out of his room. On the opposite side of the door frame was a particularly long hallway adorned with brilliant red carpet. The polished oak walls were covered in moving photographs of not only James, but his parents and his friends as well, they were practically his family now, after all.

He continued through the house until he reached a large stairwell at the northern end of the room and immediately began descending the steps down into the lower floors of his parents' estate home. It was sometimes strange for him that he lived in a mansion for the summer and then lived in a castle for the rest of the duration of the year, a reality that he sadly admitted most people could only dream about.

"Ah, look who finally woke up," Fleamont Potter said as he witness his only child step into the large dining room, "We thought you'd never get up."

James laughed some, dropping into a seat beside his father and giving him a cheeky grin, "I had to be awake today otherwise I wouldn't have."

Euphemia Potter released a small chuckle at her child's antics, then joined him and her husband at the table.

"James, we wanted to talk to you about something."

"What is it?"

"When do you think we should organize to take a trip to Diagon Alley so that we can all collect the school items you, Sirius and Remus will need for the coming year?"

"Have we already got our letters?" James asked mystified, he didn't remember getting them sent out quite yet.

"They arrived this morning, we didn't open them, but we recognized the handwriting almost immediately, Sirius and Remus' were delivered here as well."

"Guess, Dumbledore figured that they'd be coming to spend the tail end of the summer with us then," James said thoughtfully, "I was thinking that we should go mid-way through next week, that way Sirius, Remus and I have a decent amount of time to catch up beforehand."

"Good idea."

x-x-x-x-x

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, reading through a particularly obscure novel written entirely in an indiscernible language. The elderly mage had a distant smile on his face as he perused through all the various information contained within the book. A sound collided with his ear-drums and Dumbledore gave a small smile without even lifting his eyes from the book he was studying, "Enter," the Headmaster said calmly.

"Professor Dumbledore," the woman said, striding into the room, a kind smile adorning her matronly features. She was dressed in a set of official-looking yellow robes with a high-wasted belt fastened around her figure, the symbol of the sun gleaming as the buckle of the belt and the final part of the outfit were the leather bracers won on either of her lower arms that went up to just below the halfway point of her forearm.

"Minister Jenkins, what might I do for you this evening," Dumbledore said with a bright smile upon his features, the man's sapphire eyes twinkling beneath his half-moon spectacles, "it is unlike you to visit at such a late hour."

"I wouldn't ordinarily, Albus, but the matter is of great importance."

Dumbledore nodded, "Of course, take a seat Minister, can I interest you in a lemon drop?"

Eugenia Jenkins lowered herself into one of the chairs opposite Dumbledore's desk, but politely declined the offer for sweets, she had a mission to carry out and that was the only reason she'd come here, "It is about three of your students."

"Three of my students?" Dumbledore asked, tilting his head to the side a slight amount, "Have any of them gotten in trouble with the Ministry?"

"No, that's not it at all. One of my men from the department of mysteries brought me some very interesting information this morning and I thought that I would share it with you so that if anything comes of it then you will not be unnecessarily surprised but you can be now while there are no other students around to start spreading rumours in case nothing does come to pass."

The minister reached for the wand stowed away inside one of the bracers on her arm and pulled it free before flicking it at Dumbledore's desk. A moment later a piece of parchment slowly came into view with a set of writing along it.

 _Soul-Bond_

 _State: Dormant, Potential_

 _Potential Bonded: James Ignotus Potter, Sirius Orion Black_ _,_ Lily _J. Evans._

"Well, this is quite shocking indeed," Professor Dumbledore said, his eyes still twinkling like mad, "at least it is only potential for now."

Eugenia Jenkins had to restrain herself from laughing, "Albus, you know as well as I do that as far as potential is concerned, where this world sees it is not a case of if it's more of a case of when."

"We shall see how things go, moving forward," Dumbledore agreed.


	3. The Boys Reunited

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter or anything related.

CHAPTER THREE: Twists and Turns of The Marauders

The Hogwarts Express had taken its first corner on the journey towards the towering castle, Sirius and James were involved in a rather deep conversation about what they expected to find this year and what sorts of challenges would await them. Quidditch was one thing high on the list of things the duo thought was about to get more intense. Remus, on the other hand, comfortably relaxed in the seat he was currently occupying, a thoughtful expression on his features as he surveyed the book clutched tightly in his hands, his eyes glimmering with the intense concentration he was displaying. Peter was leaning back against the seat, trying not to fall asleep for the time being.

"Whatcha reading?" Sirius asked Remus lightly.

"This?" Remus asked, holding up the book to eye-level.

"Well, that is the book you're reading is it not?" James asked cheekily.

"Very funny guys," Remus said sarcastically, then he gave them a grin, "I'm reading a history novel."

"History novel?" Peter asked his friend curiously.

"Yeah, muggles write them."

"Why would you want to read about Muggle history?" a voice came from the doorway of the compartment and all three Marauders released predictable groans, of course The Slytherins had to come and ruin their journey to Hogwarts already. It didn't help that Lucius Malfoy had been standing slightly behind them the whole time.

"Yes, do enlighten us, Lupin," Bellatrix interrupted, "Why would you want to read about filthy little mudbloods."

"Because it's more interesting than reading about purebloods, their conflicts are always stupid, bias and a tad under-researched. No one wants to read fifty novels about how Purebloods went to war with muggle-borns because they thought they were better than everyone else, it's horribly repetitive."

Bellatrix released a small growl, without any hesitation she rushed him, but before the girl could even get halfway into the compartment, Sirius already had his wand out, "Fuck off. Bellatrix. _Levicorpus!"_

Magic erupted from the tip of Sirius' wand and blasted across to hit Bellatrix straight in the stomach, she was thrown from the ground and tossed casually out of the apartment.

"Y-you dare attack the future Lady Black!?" Lucius snapped.

James sighed, "Ew, is she going to marry her own Uncle? You should've stayed away from us Malfoy," he walked up to Sirius' side and pulled out his own wand, " _Levicorpus!"_

Similarly to Bellatrix, Lucius was thrown out of the compartment and dumped casually in the hallway of the train.

Looking at the rest of the Slytherins gathered, Remus got to his feet and also pulled his wand out, "Who's next?" he said rather coldly.

Without needing to be told twice, the Slytherins gathered up the two fallen students and then rushed off in the opposite direction.

"I swear, if Snivellus comes and makes this trip worse than it already is, I'm going to explode," Sirius groaned.

"Five sickles says that he turns up within the hour," James counted.

"You're on."

And of course, James wouldn't be disappointed with the results of calling the bet. Precisely forty-five minutes later, the compartment door slid open and Severus Snape popped his head inside, giving the occupants of the compartment a dirty sneer.

"Oh look, it's Potter and his Lackeys."

"Shut it, Snivellus."

"Yeah, just cause Lily's not around to watch your true colours come out doesn't mean you have to be a bastard about things," Sirius cut in.

"Imagine if she knew what you were really like," Remus added viciously, you could almost _hear_ Remus' wolf inside him, begging to break free just to have a shot at Snape.

"And what would that be?"

"A spineless coward who's hanging around spineless death eaters, because the truth is as much as you tell yourself that you care about Lily, you don't, you _fancy_ the dark arts."

Seeing that look cross Severus' face, Sirius smirked, knowing deep down that Remus was right about the other boy.

"I guess I'll just have to show you just _how much_."

Suddenly Severus was cut off mid-rant when a slim, attractive figure sauntered her way down the hall of the train, she then looked towards him and beamed, her almond-shaped emerald eyes catching the light in just the right way, "Sev? What are you doing? I've been looking for you _everywhere!_ Did you have an okay holiday?"

"Do not talk to me Mudblood." Severus said without even thinking, it was out of his mouth before he could even think about who he was talking to. Lily's jaw dropped, not having expected her friend to use such language in her direction, but before she could even open her mouth, Sirius and James both had their wands out.

" _Take that back!"_ Sirius snapped.

" _Or we'll take you out!"_ James added as an after-thought.

Severus turned to Lily and released a small sigh, "I'm sorry, Lily…I didn't think it was you."

"Oh, so it's okay for you to call other people like me mudbloods, but I'm an exception merely because you've known me for so long? You make me _sick!"_

Lily reached for her wand, then decided against it. Slamming her fist into the side of Snape's cheek as hard as she could instead.

"Get lost, Severus and make sure that you don't bother me, because I can assure you that this _mudblood_ won't be bothering you anymore."

Without really checking to see who else was in the compartment, Lily threw Severus out, then closed the door behind her. The red-haired witch released a breath of relief, then dropped into the seat where Remus was sitting.

"Hey Lily," James said casually, "alright summer?"

"It wasn't bad thank you, rather quiet compared to Hogwarts actu…" Wait, She could tell that voice anywhere, but he hadn't used her last name this time? That was weird, does this mean he'd be backing off with his arrogance this year? Highly unlikely. Still it wasn't unpleasant, for now.

"That's alright then," James said, "Ours was quiet too, we all just hung round mine really."

James Potter was actually being civilized for once? This was an odd conundrum to say the least… She would no doubt be working at it very soon too, this was really strange, and Lily didn't like it. Where had this sudden one hundred and eight in attitude come from?

Severus climbed to his feet and decided to test out a spell that he'd found inside a book at the end of the previous year, it looked like a spell that someone had jotted down in the notebook, which meant that there was no explanation of what it did, so Severus hoped that it would cause them all extreme pain.

" _Audi me antiquorum spirituum, et dimittere industria et constringes eos animarum!"_

"Watch out!" Remus exclaimed, diving out of the trajectory of the spell, he was able to pick it up earlier in the casting because of his wolf-hearing. However, James, Sirius and Lily had not been fast enough to avoid the spell and ended up being hit by it head on.

Bright golden lights enveloped their bodies, winding and weaving together, the tendrils of gold soared around the compartment and completely concealing the three from view. When the lights had faded a few seconds later, Severus saw that all three had been rendered unconscious, he didn't care enough to try and take a direct shot at Remus, so with a smug smirk of success on his face, Severus turned on heel and departed from the compartment.

"James? Lily? Sirius?"

End Chapter.


	4. Twists and Turns of The Marauders

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter or anything related.

CHAPTER THREE: Twists and Turns of The Marauders

The Hogwarts Express had taken its first corner on the journey towards the towering castle, Sirius and James were involved in a rather deep conversation about what they expected to find this year and what sorts of challenges would await them. Quidditch was one thing high on the list of things the duo thought was about to get more intense. Remus, on the other hand, comfortably relaxed in the seat he was currently occupying, a thoughtful expression on his features as he surveyed the book clutched tightly in his hands, his eyes glimmering with the intense concentration he was displaying.

"Whatcha reading?" Sirius asked Remus lightly.

"This?" Remus asked, holding up the book to eye-level.

"Well, that is the book you're reading is it not?" James asked cheekily.

"Very funny guys," Remus said sarcastically, then he gave them a grin, "I'm reading a history novel."

"History novel?"

"Yeah, muggles write them."

"Why would you want to read about Muggle history?" a voice came from the doorway of the compartment and all three Marauders released predictable groans, of course The Slytherins had to come and ruin their journey to Hogwarts already. It didn't help that one of their former friends, who was Gryffindor had been standing slightly behind them the whole time. Peter Pettigrew had been forced to dorm with the boys below year to Sirius, James and Remus who all swore they'd murder Peter in his sleep if he tried to come into their dormitory again after what he pulled the previous year.

"Yes, do enlighten us, Lupin," Bellatrix interrupted, "Why would you want to read about filthy little mudbloods."

"Because it's more interesting than reading about purebloods, their conflicts are always stupid, bias and a tad under-researched. No one wants to read fifty novels about how Purebloods went to war with muggle-borns because they thought they were better than everyone else, it's horribly repetitive."

Bellatrix released a small growl, without any hesitation she rushed him, but before the girl could even get halfway into the compartment, Sirius already had his wand out, "Fuck off. Bellatrix. _Levicorpus!"_

Magic erupted from the tip of Sirius' wand and blasted across to hit Bellatrix straight in the stomach, she was thrown from the ground and tossed casually out of the apartment.

"Y-you dare attack Lady B-black!?" Pettigrew snapped it a stutter.

James sighed, "You should've stayed away from us Peter," he walked up to Sirius' side and pulled out his own wand, " _Levicorpus!"_

Similarly to Bellatrix, Peter was thrown out of the compartment and dumped casually in the hallway of the train.

Looking at the rest of the Slytherins gathered, Remus got to his feet and also pulled his wand out, "Who's next?" he said rather coldly.

Without needing to be told twice, the Slytherins gathered up the two fallen students and then rushed off in the opposite direction.

"I swear, if Snivellus comes and makes this trip worse than it already is, I'm going to explode," Sirius groaned.

"Five sickles says that he turns up within the hour," James counted.

"You're on."

And of course, James wouldn't be disappointed with the results of calling the bet. Precisely forty-five minutes later, the compartment door slid open and Severus Snape popped his head inside, giving the occupants of the compartment a dirty sneer.

"Oh look, it's Potter and his Lackeys."

"Shut it, Snivellus."

"Yeah, just cause Lily's not around to watch your true colours come out doesn't mean you have to be a bastard about things," Sirius cut in.

"Imagine if she knew what you were really like," Remus added viciously, you could almost _hear_ Remus' wolf inside him, begging to break free just to have a shot at Snape.

"And what would that be?"

"A spineless coward who's hanging around spineless death eaters, because the truth is as much as you tell yourself that you care about Lily, you don't, you _fancy_ the dark arts."

Seeing that look cross Severus' face, Sirius smirked, knowing deep down that Remus was right about the other boy.

"I guess I'll just have to show you just _how much_."

Suddenly Severus was cut off mid-rant when a slim, attractive figure sauntered her way down the hall of the train, she then looked towards him and beamed, her almond-shaped emerald eyes catching the light in just the right way, "Sev? What are you doing? I've been looking for you _everywhere!_ Did you have an okay holiday?"

"Do not talk to me Mudblood." Severus said without even thinking, it was out of his mouth before he could even think about who he was talking to. Lily's jaw dropped, not having expected her friend to use such language in her direction, but before she could even open her mouth, Sirius and James both had their wands out.

" _Take that back!"_ Sirius snapped.

" _Or we'll take you out!"_ James added as an after-thought.

Severus turned to Lily and released a small sigh, "I'm sorry, Lily…I didn't think it was you."

"Oh, so it's okay for you to call other people like me mudbloods, but I'm an exception merely because you've known me for so long? You make me _sick!"_

Lily reached for her wand, then decided against it. Slamming her fist into the side of Snape's cheek as hard as she could instead.

"Get lost, Severus and make sure that you don't bother me, because I can assure you that this _mudblood_ won't be bothering you anymore."

Without really checking to see who else was in the compartment, Lily threw Severus out, then closed the door behind her. The red-haired witch released a breath of relief, then dropped into the seat where Remus was sitting.

"Hey Lily," James said casually, "alright summer?"

"It wasn't bad thank you, rather quiet compared to Hogwarts actu…" Wait, She could tell that voice anywhere, but he hadn't used her last name this time? That was weird, does this mean he'd be backing off with his arrogance this year? Highly unlikely. Still it wasn't unpleasant, for now.

"That's alright then," James said, "Ours was quiet too, we all just hung round mine really."

James Potter was actually being civilized for once? This was an odd conundrum to say the least… She would no doubt be working at it very soon too, this was really strange, and Lily didn't like it. Where had this sudden one hundred and eight in attitude come from?

Severus climbed to his feet and decided to test out a spell that he'd found inside a book at the end of the previous year, it looked like a spell that someone had jotted down in the notebook, which meant that there was no explanation of what it did, so Severus hoped that it would cause them all extreme pain.

" _Audi me antiquorum spirituum, et dimittere industria et constringes eos animarum!"_

"Watch out!" Remus exclaimed, diving out of the trajectory of the spell, he was able to pick it up earlier in the casting because of his wolf-hearing. However, James, Sirius and Lily had not been fast enough to avoid the spell and ended up being hit by it head on.

Bright golden lights enveloped their bodies, winding and weaving together, the tendrils of gold soared around the compartment and completely concealing the three from view. When the lights had faded a few seconds later, Severus saw that all three had been rendered unconscious, he didn't care enough to try and take a direct shot at Remus, so with a smug smirk of success on his face, Severus turned on heel and departed from the compartment.

"James? Lily? Sirius?"

End Chapter.


	5. Chapter 5

To fit in the AUverse I'm creating I'm going to go back and edit the chapters to have Lucius being the one that joins Severus in antagonizing the main crew rather than Pettigrew so that things make more sense cohesively, just a heads up before we proceed with this chapter! :)

Chapter Five: Welcome To The World.

"U…Ugh, what happened?"

"Snivellus came back in and cast this charm that I've never even heard of before," Remus stated, trying to bring James up to speed, seeing as he was the first one to come to after the spell. James himself had staggered back to his feet and forced himself back to his feet while Lily and Sirius remained unconscious on the floor.

"Wait, if I came too…why are Padfoot and Lily still out to the world?"

"That's not a question I'm sure that I can answer, Prongs. Hopefully, they come back around soon, I already checked their pulses."

"You know how to do that?"

"Only how to identify it, I haven't learned anything healing based unfortunately, otherwise I might have been able to figure out how to bring all three of you conscious at once."

James once again turned worried eyes down to Sirius and Lily, his hazel eyes slowly filling with sadness until he felt a hand against his left-shoulder.

"Try not to worry too much about it James, they're already in their robes and we're almost back at Hogwarts. If anything, we can alert the closest person to what happened and have Sirius and Lily taken to Madame Pomphrey as soon as we arrive at the castle."

But James and Remus needn't have worried for a moment after Remus had made the final statement of the conversation, a low groan came from the floor and Sirius pulled himself up onto the seat opposite James while Lily moved onto the seat beside Remus.

"What was that?" Sirius groaned, "Who knew that git could come up with something as well placed as that?"

"Count me out of that list," Lily added quickly, "That was definitely different to any of the dark spells that I know he's so fond of using against everyone."

"Huh, hold on."

"What is it?"

"You're holding a civil conversation with us," Sirius said slowly, "That's not supposed to happen. Isn't it a bit out of character for you?"

"It might be, but this situation is a strange set of circumstances in the very least and I'm more surprised that James hasn't flirted with me yet. It's a bit unnatural if you ask me."

"Missing it already?" James asked her cheekily.

"You wish, Potter," Lily snapped, but there was a small, almost indistinguishable smile on the young woman's countenance. She leaned back in her seat and looked around the compartment at them all. The four of them hadn't taken notice of this yet but all four of them had been marked with a special symbol. On the side of Lily's neck just beneath the collar of her robes was a Lily entwined into a set of vines that stretched out across her collarbone. The three extensions inside the plant that rose up like antennae of some kind each bore a different colour. The end of the first was a bright ruby red, the second was a deep midnight black and the final was a beautiful grey that resembled something from the arctic regions.

James' new depiction was a stag placed on his upper right shoulder, the body lined with three stripes. The first stripe was a bright emerald green, the second a deep midnight black and the final was the same beautiful grey depicted in the lily flower. Sirius' one was a grim's head, the dog's left eye was perfectly half-green and half-red while the right eye was that beautiful grey again, it was placed on the right-hand side of his chest, just above his heart. Finally, Remus' was a wolf in front of a full moon with three stars placed on the shoulder opposite to James' one. The stars in this image were the different coloured pieces. One red, one green and one black respectively.

"We should be at Hogwarts soon," Sirius said, leaning back in his seat slowly, "I can't wait to get there and be fully away from my parents for another year."

"Well, you're always going to be welcome round mine, at least you know that now," James said in what he hoped was a comforting tone, "Maybe we can organize it so that you can come a bit earlier in the summer next year."

"I'm surprised it didn't affect me," Peter said, "Or Remus."

"Yeah, same here," Sirius said, folding his arms almost indignantly. You could practically hear the young man's frustration etched upon his face, "How come he avoids all the scrapes with death?"

"Oh hush it Black," Lily said, exaggeratingly rolling her eyes in the process.

"Let's be fair, I'm not sure Wormy here could survive the brushes with death that we do."

"He's not wrong," Peter said softly, trembling as he did so. The thought of being pulled into any sort of near death experience was not attractive in any sense to the young rat-faced boy, but he was just happy to be included in a group of people that were strong enough to be able to protect him from the things like that.

The train turned its final corner and continued into Hogsmeade Station. Finally, the journey was at its end and they could return to Hogwarts. One Sirius Black was privately confused. Lily and James hadn't been at each other's throats for the entire time and they'd been in the same compartment for almost an hour now. On top of that, she'd only made one remark about his immaturity during the whole exchange and that privately worried him. Everything seemed a little out of whack because of it. He couldn't voice his opinion however, because if he did, he risked ruining the semblance of peace they were all getting around each other as well and he didn't want to be that guy even in the slightest.

"Oi, Padfoot!" James exclaimed, snapping his fingers in Sirius' face, "Are you coming or what?"

"Um, huh?"

Another roll of the eyes came from Lily's direction, "Really, Black? Zoning out to dream of beautiful women already?"

Sirius' eyes fell onto Lily's almond-shaped emerald ones and then he quickly looked away, finding the image of her emerald pools burned into his mind's image even in that short space of time. He'd almost started to count her eyelashes.

 _WHAT THE HELL WAS HAPPENING TO HIM!? THAT WAS LILY EVANS. HIS BEST-FRIEND'S FUTURE GIRL, WHAT THE HELL WAS HIS MIND DOING?_

"C…can we go now? We don't want to miss the feast."

"Right you are Peter," Sirius pronounced boldly, "let us venture into our next journey to the Great Hall!"

"What's gotten into him?" Remus asked concernedly.

"No idea, let's just go with it for now," James hissed in response, "Padfoot will be Padfoot after all."

"Come on guys, let's go!"

James, Remus and Lily all rolled their eyes in perfect sync, then followed Sirius and Peter out of the compartment.

End Chapter.


End file.
